Aware of the quality that Nigeria possesses, Congo’s Coach, Charly Buzangu has admitted that the defending champion would be a hard nut to crack when the FIBA AfroBasket 2017 dunks off in September.
The coach told FIBA.com after naming a preliminary squad for the continental championship that the star-studded Nigerian side dominated by their foreign legion would surely be a strong side to beat.
“We’ve put together this group of players because of the opposition we’ll face. Teams like Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon tend to bring their foreign-based players who give them a huge help. Hopefully, our foreign-based players can give us a lift.
“We are going to play one game at a time as we aim to build a strong team. It’s going to be a tough pool for us, but we’ll make sure to build a solid and competitive team which represents our country the best way possible.”
This year’s Africa Championship will be co-hosted by Senegal and Tunisia from September 8-16.
Groups A and C will be played in Tunis while Groups B and D will be hosted in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
The top two teams from each group will advance to Tunis, which will also host the Final Phase (Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Finals) from September 14-16
Although Buzangu hasn’t elaborated the starting date of the training camp, he ensured that “Eighty percent of the players are already in Kinshasa.
The coaching team – led by Charly Buzangu and Joachim Vale Mosengo – kept most of the team that strived during the FIBA Africa Zone 4 qualifiers.
They have also called Emmanuel Mudiay and Bismack Biyombo – the only two Congolese in the NBA -, added former The University of Texas at Austin ace Mick Kabongo and made sure to invite rising star 20-year-old Jordan Sakho from Spain’s top flight ICL Manresa.
The DR Congo has invited some of their most talented players for a training camp for the upcoming FIBA AfroBasket 2017.